My winter skin and hair care routine

My beauty routine for winter is very simple. All the aids that I use are usually natural and inexpensive and most of these are already present in your kitchen cupboard and home garden while a few others can easily be bought from the local stores and supermarkets. Here’s how I use them to my advantage.

As the lips are the fastest to dry during this time of the year, they need to be kept moisturized always. Firstly, I gently exfoliate the lips by applying fresh butter on them and then use a toothbrush or a wet cloth to sweep off the dry flakes. Then I mix a little honey and glycerin and apply it to my lips. This remedy is excellent to prevent and treat chapped lips. I reapply this honey mixture on my lips several times during the day. Warm olive oil application also does the trick. I never bite or chew or lick my lips as such habits can break the fragile skin, making it prone to infection. Licking lips frequently makes them rough and prone to chapping as the enzymes from the saliva work on it to evaporate the moisture.

For my face, I use a mild scrub once in a week followed by a good hydrating face pack. Sloughing off skin cells in winter with a scrub won’t harm your already dried-up skin; in fact, it helps to maintain the skin’s natural moisture level. Removing this outer-most layer of dead skin buildup actually aids in the absorption of other moisturizing products. Usually I apply fresh aloe vera on my skin, which deeply nourishes it. Sometimes I also use honey to which a few drops of rose water and glycerin is added and spread it all over my face and neck. This keeps my face radiant and glowing.

With regard to my hands and feet, I constantly apply body lotion and moisturizer whenever my skin feels dry and make it a point to do this even before going to bed.

As the soles of feet tend to crack more in winter, I pamper them with a relaxing foot-bath and slough off the flaky skin with a pumice stone, after which I apply petroleum jelly on them. I also take time to indulge in that luxury called ‘oil bath’ at least thrice in a week in this season. This pre-bath oil massage with olive oil or coconut oil keeps my skin silky smooth and soft. When I don’t have time for a special ‘oil bath’, I add a few drops of almond oil or olive oil to the water that I am using to bath. This helps retain the moisture lost when bathing.

I have oily hair, so it doesn’t pose much of a problem in winter. I wash it once a week with a mild herbal shampoo which is followed by an herbal rinse to give it bounce and shine. I never wash my hair before oiling it well. This is usually followed by a good conditioning hair pack before shampooing which I keep on for 20-30 minutes before rinsing it off. Generally, I prefer to massage it with aloe vera gel for a few minutes for a deeper conditioning. This helps to soften my hair significantly. As this is time when hair mostly tends to split, I trim my hair once in a week (my hair grows very fast…) to prevent split ends from working their way up the hair shafts.

I follow a diet which consists of a lot of lentils, veggies like drumstick, salads, and vitamin-C rich foods like amla (Indian gooseberry), lime/lemon and oranges and fruits like bananas. There is no major change in my diet , as such during winter. However I see to it that my fluid intake is considerable to keep myself hydrated well from the inside. Also I don’t miss my daily exercise routine of Pranayam and Yoga.